When Google released the Home Hub smart display last October, product lead Ashton Udall was emphatic about the importance of a feature called Ambient EQ, which measures the room’s lighting conditions and adjusts the screen’s brightness and color temperature accordingly. This makes the Google Home Hub feel more natural as a picture frame, and avoids subjecting users to glowing blue screens in the evening.
“Honestly, I don’t know how a company can claim that they really thought through designing a display for the home and the customer if they haven’t enabled an experience like this,” Udall told me at the time.